Neurological dysfunctions and disorders continue to be a major health threat in the population. Neurological dysfunctions and disorders occur due to dysfunction of the neurons in the central nervous system as well as the peripheral nervous system.
One frequent contributing factor of neurological dysfunctions and disorders is mitochondrial disease. Some mitochondrial diseases are due to mutations or deletions in the mitochondrial genome. Mitochondria divide and proliferate with a faster turnover rate than their host cells, and their replication is under control of the nuclear genome. If a threshold proportion of mitochondria in a cell is defective, and if a threshold proportion of such cells within a tissue have defective mitochondria, symptoms of tissue or organ dysfunction can result. Practically any tissue can be affected, and a large variety of symptoms may be present, depending on the extent to which different tissues are involved.